AIM: To observe and analyze the changes of macular retina thickness in children with occult high myopia and its influencing factors.

METHODS: A prospective, non-randomized, contemporaneous controlled trial. From September 2019 to September 2020, 56 children(110 eyes)who first visited the ophthalmic clinic of the Affiliated Hospital of Chengde Medical College without any myopia correction training were enrolled in this study. According to the clinical manifestations of myopia in children, they were divided into occult high myopia group(27 cases, 52 eyes)and control group(29 cases, 58 eyes, children with common myopia). The retina thickness in each macular area was compared between the two groups, and we will analyze the correlation between macular fovea mean retinal thickness and baseline data in children with occult high myopia.

RESULTS: The average retinal thickness of 9 macular regions in the occult high myopia group was thinner than that in the control group, and there were significant differences in the macular fovea, the blow and temporal side of the outer ring area of macular fovea(P<0.05). Compared with the control group with the same spherical equivalent, there was significant difference in area that the temporal side of the outer ring of the macular fovea in the occult high myopia of 0.00D to -1.00D and the fovea in the occult high myopia group of >-2.00D to -3.00D(P<0.05), but there was no significant difference among the other regions(P>0.05). Pearson correlation analysis results showed that the average retinal thickness under macular fovea in children with secretive high myopia had no significant correlation with gender, age, eye axis, intraocular pressure and corneal curvature(P>0.05), but was negatively correlated with diopter(r=-0.201, P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: The thickness of macular retinal in children with occult high myopia is thinnest under macular fovea and the thickest above macular fovea in inner ring area. The average retinal thickness in each region of the macular is thinner than that in the common myopia children with the same diopter. The mean retinal thickness of macular fovea is negatively correlated with the diopter.